HEBREW 



AMERICAN SLAVERY. 



A DISCOURSE, 




Bv REV. G. S. COIl"WIISr, 



ELBA, N.Y. 



ROCHESTEE, N. Y. 

PRESS OF A. STRONG & CO., DEMOCRAT AND AMERICAN OFFICE. 
1863. 



f 



NOTICE TO THE READER 



Tnis Sermon is not given to the Press by the author, or the friends who 
sohcit it for publication, with the belief that it contains anything new, but 
as a concise abridgment of works on the subject in another form of argu- 
ment, and so brief, that it is hoped some may be benefited who will not 
read a hook on the subject, and some who hear much about political preach- 
ing, and have much to say about it, who do not know what it means, being 
rarely found in church. 

Again, they believe in times like these, every man should strike for his 
country who has a sword, and if he has none, sTiould sell his coat and buy 
one. If he cannot strike a heavy blow — still he should strike — strike as he 
can. He may wound the sin, if he cannot kill it ; he may excite a new 
thought if he cannot originate one. To be indifferent in a time like this, is 
to be a traitor to his country, to his religion if it be the Christian religion, 
and he has any. Nothing we have should be held too dear for the altar of 
God and a good government in danger. If it is but little we have — a straw 
breaks the camel's back, a dust turns the balance, a drop overflows the bowl. 



■J DISCOURSE. 

Lktiticus, XXV., 44-45. — " Both thy boudmen and thy bondsmaids, uhich 
thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about thee, of 
them shall ye buy bondmen and handmaids. Moreover, of the children 
of strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of 
their families that are with you which they begat in your land ; and 
they shall be your possession, — and ye shall take them as an inheritance 
for your children after you to inherit them for a possession ; and they 
shall be your bondmen forever." 

Slavery is the great question of the day, of the nation, of 
the age ; ought not every man to stud j it? It enters into 
almost every subject with which we have to do ; ought we 
not to inform oui'selves of its merits, its nature, and its 
workings ? It has become, it is true, a political question — 
or has been — it is now more a national question, i. e. a ques- 
tion of national existence ; but it is still a moral, a religious 
question, and pro])er for religious investigation. The fact 
that every man is required to act on it, makes it doubly im- 
portant that every man should study it and be thoroughly 
acquainted with it. PoUtics are never so noble as when 
they grapple with some great moral subject, for then if men 
will be studious and honest, the national intellect will be 
enlarged and the national heart made better. But it will 
not do to say, a moral or a religious subject shall not be dis- 
cussed in the pulpit when it becomes a political subject. 
The minister's duty is then the more imperious. 

Two years and a half ago I found a paper lying on the 
desk, requesting me to comment on this text. 1 was at the 
time preaching a series of sermons on the sacred feasts and 
fasts of the Old Testament, and other institutions of the 
Mosaic law. I regarded it at the time a challenge to con- 
trovert, if I could, the doctrine of Slavery as here taught. I 



laid tlie paper aside, intending at a future time to preacb 
from the text. It was then the sunnner before the election 
of President, and the question of Shivery entered very 
largely into the contest, and I judged that preaching on it 
at that time might and would be construed as- a design on 
my part to meddle with politics. The position of thinus are 
changed. It has brought a civil war upon us, and it is not 
so much a question of politics as of national existence. It 
has brought the war upon us and has been hitlierto the great 
sustaining power of the war against the Government. Every 
man is called on to judge whether it is right or wrong, 
whetiier our Government is acting riglit or wrong in resist- 
ing its demands, and in the blows it is dealing against it. 
Some say it is a Divine institution and we are fighting 
against God in defending ourselves against it. Secession 
preaches this doctrine, politicians preach it, the fiiends of 
Secession in the North preach it, ministers South and North 
preach it ; and if Slavery is right they have a right to, and 
they ought to. I find no fault with any one advocating it 
if he sincerely and jprayerfidhj believe it riglit. But I do 
object to men professing to be honest in advocating, some 
for preaching it in the pulpit and denouncing others for say- 
ing a word against it. I protest against such a spirit as this 
— it is tyranny. I protest against such men's claims to con- 
sistency. I protest against any such claiming that it is 
Tight^ for nothing that is riglit requires darkness, or hinder- 
ing the honest expression of opinions. If it be right for Mr. 
Yandyke or Palmer to preach on the subject, where is the 
right of closing the mouths of other ministers, who by the 
Constitution and laws are guarantied equal rights ? Men 
who do this virtually admit the unsoundness of the doctrines 
they hold ; and expose the tyranny they would exercise 
over the consciences of men. And these are the men who as 
a general thing are the most noisy against our Government 
for doing it in extreme cases. 

The text is a part of a system of laws designed for a par- 
ticular people, for a particular age and circumstances, and 
was not designed for our age of the world nor for any nation 



5 

of the present day. They ceased to be binding even on tlie 
Jews after the death of Christ. In this system of law are 
enjoined three annual feasts, binding on the whole nation ; 
eating a lamb with bitter herbs and nnleavened bread for 
seven days, circumcision of every male child on the eighth 
day after its birth ; the sacrificing of lambs, bullocks, goats, 
birds ; cities of refuge for the manslayer to flee to, &c. &c. 

The Jews for whom the law was made were not allowed 
to take any interest for money loaned to a Jew, if he was 
embarrassed ; they were required to marry a deceased 
brother's widow ; they weie permitted to divorce their 
wives for mere capi'ice or dislike, and marry others ; there 
was no prohibition in this law against polygamy, and this for 
a time was generally practiced even by their best men ; they 
were forbidden to eat swine's flesh, and certain other 
animals, and birds. None of these laws are now incorpo- 
rated into the codes of civilized or Chi'istianized nations. 
Kone of them are binding on Jew or Gentile. Mo^ of them 
are prohibited by law with Christian Jiations. Men would 
now be imprisoned for doing what Abraham, Jacob, David, 
Solomon, and the Jews generally did. 

Why then should we appeal to this law to justify Slavery 
when we wo^jld not allow the Mormon or the Free-lovei- to 
appeal to it to justify divorce or polygamy? The advocates 
of Slavery appeal to the Patriarchs in justification of it ; the 
Mormons appeal to the Patriarchs in justification of poly- 
gamy- Does the conduct of the Patriarchs justify the one 
more than the other ? Abraham held slaves, therefore 
Slavery is right. Abraham had a child by one of his 
slaves, therefore adultery is right. The one is no more con- 
demned than the other and no more justified than the 
other, in anything said about Abraham. Jacob had two 
wives and two concubines, and not a word is said against 
it, therefore polygamy "is a Divine institution. The Jew 
was allowed to divorce his wife for personal dislike, and this 
he might repeat as ofren as he pleased for there is no restric- 
tion ; and this is all the Free-lover asks. And by the 
arguments used for Slavery we must justify Mormon- 



6 

ism, Free-loveism, polygamy, concubinage, and adnltery. 
All the Mulattoes, Quadroons, Octoroons of the South, 
two millions or more, have as honorable parentage as 
Ishmael, so far as marriage is concerned, and are a part 
of the Divine institution. If a Patriarch's practice may be 
appealed to to justify one wrong it may be to justify another. 
The Mormon and the Free-lover have just as good argu- 
ments for their systems as the Slave-holder has for his, in 
the conduct of the Patriarchs. 

" Happy is he that conderancth not himself in that thing 
which he alloweth." Are any of the advocates of Slavery 
wilh'ng their sons-in-law should put away their daughters 
and marry other women ? or take other wives or concubines 
to share the conjugal honors and emoluments with their 
daughters? If not, they are advocates of a system for 
others which they will not allow for themselves. Yes, 
they approve for others what they would regard a great 
wrong — an outrage on themselves. Are these men willing 
their sons should be sold into Slavery? But this was 
a part of the law. The text commands or permits rather, 
purchasing and holding as slaves the heathen about them, 
but the system permitted them to enslave one another, not 
only for six years, but for life or till the year of Jubilee. 
"If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, 
and in the seventh year he shall go out for nothing. If he 
came in by himself he shall go out by himself; if he were 
married then his wife shall go out with him. If his master 
have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or 
daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters 
and lie shall go out by himself And if the servant shall plainly 
say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not 
go out free ; then his master shall bring him unto the judges, 
and he shall also bring him unto the door or unto the door- 
post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, 
and he shall serve him forever."— Ex., xxi. 2-6. The He- 
brews might enslave each other for debt, that is, compel to 
service, (See Lev., xxv. 39.); to be held till the year of release 
or jubilee j and the wife and children might be held as ser- 



vants to one of these periods, according to the law ; and if the 
man was not willing to leave his wife and children he might 
become a servant himself till their time expired. Thns the 
poor were subjected to this kind of slavery and subjected 
their children to it. Are any of the advocates of Slavery 
willing to abide by this law ? which is very much better 
than our laws on Slavery. Most families have some poor 
among them. What father or mother is willing that their 
poor son should be a slave for his poverty ? Every man who 
would do to others as he would that others should do to him, 
ought never to appeal to the Mosaic law for what he would 
regard as a great injustice if put in Ibrce with him or his 
children. Such an appeal furnishes a very strong argument 
against his honesty, his humanity, and especially against 
Ills Christianity — for this is the law of Christianity — the 
digest, the sum and substance of all her laws as well as the 
test of the Christian ; to love our neighbor as ourselves, and 
if there is any doubt aboiit any duty, the justice of any law 
or practice, we are to try it by th.s rule: — Would it be a good 
law if practiced on us? Are we willing to abide by it ? K 
not we expose ourselves when we advocate it for others. 

Our argument is not against the Mosaic law as a bad law, 
but against justifying any lorong by that law ; a law made 
for another people and under entirely different circumstan- 
ces. Two things especially are wrong with us on this point : 

1st. For a people with our opportunities, our intelligence, 
the light of the age in which we live, to appeal to the laws 
of a people just emerging from heathenism and bondage 
living in the darkest age of the world and in the midst of 
all forms of wickedness consequent thereon. 

2d. Appealing to laws to justify what is a great deal 
worse than anything found in those laws. Our system of 
Slavery is not the Scripture system but the heathen in its 
worst form. Whoever will be at the trouble to compare 
will not fail to see how little it resembles the one and how 
much it resembles the other. It differs from the Mosaic sys- 
tem in these particulars : 

I. Hebrew Slavery permitted the enslaving of any for 



8 

debt ; the man might sell himself, Lev. xxv. 39 ; a father 
might sell his children, Ex. xxi. 7 ; insolvent debtors might 
be delivered to their creditors as slaves, 2. Kings, iv. 1 ; 
thieves not able to make restitution were sold for the benefit 
of the injured party, Ex. xxii., 3 ; prisoners taken in war of 
the heathen nations about tliem, Lev. xxv. 44, 46. In all 
these cases, if we except the last, which we will presently 
Consider, there is some propriety — at least a show of justice. 
The man who has had value received and in debt for it, 
ought to pay it if he can; and if he has not the money ought 
to labor for it, if he is able; and if he will not, deserves to be 
made to do it. The Hebrew law of debt would not be a bad 
one for us. It would empty many a bar-room ; prevent 
much extravagance and dishonesty in contracting debts ; 
greatly diminish the tenants of our poor-houses, jails and 
prisons ; prevent a vast deal of idleness, vice and crime ; 
make great numbers honest men who are now rogues ; save 
a vast amount of money to the Government ; and give a 
security against public and private thieves, which is very 
much needed, and a sense of security in person and property 
which would add very much to the comfort and happiness 
of society. Slavery for thieving, we have no objections to, 
and I doubt M'hether any but rogues have. Would it not 
be better to make a man work and pay twice or three times 
the amount stolen than to lock him up in jail and maintain 
him there at the public expense, taxing the innocent to pay 
for the crimes of the guilty ? No one is benefited by this 
process — neither the loser of ihe stolen property, the person 
imprisoned nor his family, and the public is the loser in all 
the expenses incurred. Our State prison laws (in the Free 
States) are founded on the Jewish law. AVe make men 
slaves for a number of years in proportion to their crimes, 
the amount they have stolen or the mischief they have done. 
This part of the Jewish law was right — absolutely better 
than our jail system. 

But our Slave code has no resemblance to this. It is not 
founded on justice, nor in the slightest show or pretence to 
justice. It is not for debt, and it is not for crime. The 



Southern slave owed his master nothing and had never 
wronged him, never stole a farthing from him but was him- 
self stolen ; and the difference between the two systems on 
this point is the difference between enslaving a man for 
stealing^ and stealing a man to enslave him ; between making 
a man pay his honest debts, and making him labor to sup- 
port idleness and crime in others ; between enslaving him 
for his own wrong doing and enslaving an innocent man for 
the villaiiy of others ; it is the difference between the honest 
man who pays his laborer for services rendered and the in- 
famous villain who forces another to labor for nothing. 

II. Stealing men for slaves was forbidden and punished 
with death by the Hebrew code. Our Slavery is of this 
character exclusively. " And he that stealeth a man and 
selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be 
put to death," Ex. xxi., 10. The Jews might purchase a man 
— if he was willing to sell himself, or if he was sold for debt 
or crime, he might pui'chase those held in Slavery by the 
heathen, and enslave the heathen taken captive in war. 
These were the only sources of Slavery to the Jew. Our 
Slavery comes from none of these sources. Our slaves are 
stolen men and women — stolen by those who hold tliera, or 
purchased from those who stole them or who were hired to 
steal them. They have been kidnapped in Africa and in 
our own country. American Slavery began with the Roman 
Catholic Spaniard in the darkest age of that darkest system 
of human iniquity. It was devised as a substitute for 
slavery of the Indians who M'ere found unable to endure the 
hardships of Spanish Slavery, and by that system of religion 
which made merchandise of "the bodies and souls of men," 
or as it is translated, " slaves and souls of men," Rev, xviii., 
13, and which by God is doomed to perdition. The origin 
of the system is this : " In order to provide some remedy 
for this, (enslaving the Indians,) without which he found it 
was in vain to maintain his scheme, Las Casas proposed to 
purchase a sufficient number of negroes from the Portuguese 
settlement, on the coast of Africa, and to transport them to 



10 

America in order that they might be employed as slaves in 
working the mines and tilling the ground. Yarions cir- 
cumstances concurred in reviving this odious commeice (in 
slaves), which had been long abolished in Europe, and which 
is no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to the 
principles ot religion. As early as the year 1503, a few 
negro slaves had been sent into the New AVorld. In the 
year 1511, Ferdinand permitted the importation of them in 
greater numbers;" and Charles in greater numbers still, 
and so it went on to increase to its present magnitude. — 
Eobei'tson's Am., I., 209. There is not a word of license in 
the Scriptures for this. It was wholly a question of interest 
with those who engaged in it. The negro could endure 
more than the Indian, and this was their warrant, and it is 
ours — and all the one we have. The law of Moses would 
consign all engaged in this business to the gallows. The 
whole system was a system of kidnapping — man stealing; 
and every means was taken to steal men, women and 
children. -Their dwellings were set on fire by night, vil- 
lages set on fire and the fleeing, helpless inhabitants caught 
and sold for slaves ! Wars were made to catch slaves, the 
land desolated for this object alone — and men — strange as 
fiction, Bible men, Christian ministers call this a Divine in- 
stitution ! Will they show where Moses or God authorized 
making war on an unoflending people to make slaves of 
them ? or firing a dwelling by night to catch the inmates 
for slaves ? or knocking men down and gagging them and 
selling them for slaves, as has been done in hundreds if not 
thousands of instances in our own land ? This is our system. 
It had its origin in cupidity, in the lowest, worst passions of 
man's fallen nature, and like Mormonisin and most other 
falsehoods craves justification from the Bible. 

III. Hebrew Slavery was not a system of traffic in human 
beings ; ours is ; the Hebrew slave when bought had a home 
secured to him till the year of release or the year of jubilee. 
Ours has no security that he shall not to-morrow be sold into 
another part of the country and be separated from his wife 
and children. 



11 

111 our text the Jews were permitted to buy slaves, but the 
text cannot be found where they are permitted to sell them ; 
neither can a case be found except Joseph, which is recorded 
as a crime of the darkest hue. When the slave was bought 
he became a part of the family and a permanent fixture in 
the family till the year of release or the year of jubilee. 
He must be educated as one of tlie family, be circumcised 
corrected, religiously instructed the same as the children of 
the family, and he must remain in the family as one of its 
members till he is made free. There is no law in the Hebrew 
code for selling slaves, no permission as there is for buying, 
no provision, no intimation of a right to sell or a recorded 
case of sale. 

Our system is one of traffic, speculation, buying and sell, 
ing to make money. Like the Harlot of Rome, we trade in 
" beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, 
and tJie souls of men^ The laws of all the Slave States 
authorize the sale of slaves, for debt, or at the will of the 
master. The slaves, male or female, are put up at auction 
on the slave block, often naked or nearly so, that the pur- 
chaser may see if there is any defect. They are purchased 
by slave-traders, kept in slave-pens or prisons till a day of 
sale, or till they can be transferred to another market. 

In Virginia, for several years, slaves have been raised for 
the Southern market ; and this has been one of her sources 
of wealth. One of the reasons assigned by some of her 
public men why she should go with the Southern Confed- 
eracy was that her interest was with the South ; it was her 
market for her Slaves. 

And our system on this point shows no regard to the laws of 
God or humanity. The husband is separated from his wife 
and family, mothers from their children, brothers and sisters 
from each other, and sold into distant parts with no more 
regard to the laws of God on marriage, or the laws of 
humanity, than if we were a nation of Turks or Mormons. 
On the score of humanity we ought to be ashamed to look a 
Mormon in the face. He has not added this disgrace to his 
system, of selling his own children. 



12 

rV". The Jewish code of Slavery was mild and humane ; 
ours is the most inhuman and tyrannical system at this day 
on the face of the earth, and holds rank with any that has 
ever existed, in its oppression and severity. An injury to 
the Hebrew slave secured him his liberty. " And if a man 
smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it 
perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he 
smite out his man servant's tootli or his maid servant's 
tooth, he shall let him go for his tooth's sake." — Ex. xxi., 26, 
27. By this law he was protected from injury. Again, if 
his master oppressed him or made his servitude harsh or 
such as he was unwilling to endure, he might run away, 
and the law forbade any to deliver him up. "Thou shalt 
not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped 
from his master unto thee ; thou shalt not oppress him." — 
Deut. xxiii., 15, 16. You shall not send him back to be op- 
pressed nor oppress him yourself. The passage in Ex. xxi., 
20, 21, is the ouly one whicli looks like American Slavery 
in all the Bible : " If a man smite his servant or his maid 
with a rod and he die under his hand, he shall be surely 
punished. Notwithstanding if he continue a day or two he 
shall not be punished, for he is his money." The punishment 
of murder was death, and there was no exceptions made as to 
who was murdered. See Lev. xxiv., 21, 22. If the man killed 
his slave he was to be put to death ; if he lived he lost his 
property; for it is enacted in verses 26 and 27, of this same 
chapter (Ex. xxi.) and of the same persons, that if they 
only suffered the loss of an eye or a tooth they had their 
liberty ; the man was fined and not executed, fur his cruelty. 
If our Slave laws were as good as this and had been put in 
practice, probably more than a million of our slaves would 
be free ; this number, at least, we doubt not have been mal- 
treated. If there were any evidences of intention to murder, 
the man was to be put to death ; if in the anger of the 
moment he killed him, he was to be punished for man- 
slaughter; if the slave lived he lost him; his cruelty secured 
him his liberty. The law did not differ materially from 
some of our Free State laws and with persons who are not 



13 

slaves. Men are here, in the State of New York, executed 
for murder (wlien we can find judges and jurors honest 
enouirh to execute the hiw), imprisoned for manslaughter 
and fined for injury done their neiglibors. Some suppose 
it had reference only to those slaves who were heathen, 
and that God allowed this severity only to this class. They 
are one and the same, as will be seen by reading the pas- 
sage. The whipping and the loss of tlie eye and the tooth 
are spoken of servants — and the same servants whether they 
be Jew or heathen, or both ; let those who wish to make 
something more or less than the truth out of it determine. 
Again, God forbid all harsh treatment to the stranger, to all 
who embraced the Jewish religion, witiiout regard to their 
position or circumstances. "Judge rigliteously between 
every man and his brother and the stranger that is with 
you," — Deut. i., 16. " God regardeth not persons ; He doth 
execute the judgment of the fatherless and M'idow, and loveth 
the stranger j love ye therefore the stranger i for ye were 
strangers in the land of Egypt." — Deut. x., 17, 19. "The 
stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one 
born among you, and thou shait love him as thyself." — Lev. 
ix., 34. " Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oj)press 
him.r — Ex. xxii., 21. " Thou shalt not oppress a stranger^ 
for ye know the heart of a stranger." — Ex. xxiii., 9. " Cursed 
be he that perverteth the judgment of a stranger.''"' — Deut. 
xxvii., 19. 

JSTothing like these provisions is found in our system of 
Slavery. There is no law agaiisst the most wanton cruelty 
which is not a dead law on the statute book. It is not known 
that a master has ever been executed for killing his slave, 
or that a slave has any claim by law, to his liberty for mal- 
treatment, however severe, even to maiming. The slave, in 
our system, has no remedy — no appeal for injuries done him 
by his master. He cannot even testify as to what he or his 
fellow-slaves suffer by their masters. They have been whip- 
ped to death, starved to death, died from want of clothing 
and ill usage, and they have no remedy — none to help. I 
state these facts on the testimony of the Eev. Geo, "Whitfield, 



14 

Kev. Jonathan Edwards, their members of Congress, tbeir 
own newspapers, cases in their Courts of law, Southern men, 
and men of unimpeachable character who have witnessed 
these things. U one escapes from bondage, however he may- 
have been whipped, or torn and maimed by dogs or by 
shooting him, he must be restored to his master to be whip- 
ped and tortured to his heart's desire ; and God appealed 
to as the author of the system ! It is made a penal oflence 
to harbor a slave, as in the old heathen laws of Eome, while 
Mosaic law made it a duty. 

Y. Hebrew Slavery was by express permission and direc- 
tion of God for a people under very different circumstances 
and surroundings from ours, and our Slavery is without any 
such permission. Slavery was universally practised in that 
dark and barbarous age of the world. The Jews themselves 
had just emerged from a state of bondage, ignorant, sensual, 
vicious, as all who are brutalized by Slavery are to a greater 
or less degree. Their ancestors were taken from among the 
heathen a few centuries before, taught something of the true 
God, which was transmitted by tradition and hieroglyphics, 
for we have no evidence that they had any written language 
at the time, and they themselves had been in bondage to an 
idolatrous nation, more ignorant than themselves, for more 
than two hundred years. It would be strange if they, with 
such surroundings and circumstances, should not have been 
idolatros, sensualists, a "stiff necked and rebellious peo- 
ple," ignorant, vicious and cruel. This is just what they 
were. They lived in an age of great darkness and ignorance, 
and they were ignorant and blinded by the darkness which 
surrounded them. They saw nothing but Slavery, and no 
wonder they should think it right. They had lived for no 
higher object than the gratification of sense, as this is all 
any slave without religion has to live for ; no wonder they 
should be sensualists and prefer " the iiesh-pots," " the fish 
which they did eat in Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, and the 
melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick." 
"With no written language, no bible, no books, and but 



15 

God ; everywhere seeing Slavery, idolatry, polygamy, con- 
cubinage, divorce, with no law against them, no wonder 
they should be in favor with all these, and with their fallen 
natures uncurbed by religion, should resist the sudden over- 
throw of all this by law. This was the condition of the peo- 
ple to whom the Mosaic law of Slavery, of divorce, of po- 
lygamy, was given. It was good, the best that could be 
done for them. It was just or nearly what has had to be 
done, or what has been done with the savages to whom the 
gospel has been sent. AVill the Slave-owners or the advo- 
vocates of Slavery admit this to be tlieir condition ? Is such 
a law necessary for them ? or has God given them the codes 
which they practice ? We know that the system of Ameri- 
can Slavery is incomparably worse than the old Jewish sys- 
tem, and to be justified by that, the people ought to be in- 
comparably worse — be more ignorant, brutalized, debased 
and vicious. Is their system given them by God ? then it 
is the best God could give them, for God does that which is 
best under the circumstances. What then must be the state 
of that people with such a system of Slavery as exists in the 
South ? Does God authorize those laws which forbid teach- 
ing the slave to read the Bible? which imprisons ministers 
for preaching it? and even females for teaching its j^recepts ? 
None but barbarians have ever had such a system of laws, 
and if Southerners are not, they are an exception. God 
allowed no such laws as are found on the statute books of 
our Slave code, to the Jews with all their darkness, idolatry 
and sensuality. Which of these dilemmas will Slavery 
take ? If God authorized their system and gave them the best 
that their moral and Intellectual condition would admit of, 
they must be a very benighted, sensual, cruel, beastly peo- 
ple ; but if God did not authorize the system they must be 
a great deal worse ; be all this and knaves to boot, for they 
claim God for their system. The laws themselves prove the 
authors of them to be a very cruel, unj ust, Godless, graceless, 
heartless, barbarous people. No such laws are found on the 
statute books of any but such a people. Heathenism in ita 
worst forms had but few things worse on this subject. That 



I have not misconstrued the Jewish law, we adduce the 
Saviour's exposition of it. The Jews — the Pharisees, for these 
are the men who are for tight laws for others and loose ones 
for themselves — appealed to Moses for the law of divorce, 
— the right to put away a wife for any personal dislike. 
The Saviour answered them : " Moses, because of the hard- 
ness of your hearts^ suffered you to i^ut away your \vives, 
but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, 
whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and 
shall marry another, committeth adultery." — Math, xix., 3, 9. 
This was a part of the Mosaic law, and like the rest of it 
adapted to the circumstances of the Jews at the time it was 
made. The thing was allowed as a part of their civil polity, 
not because it was right in itself, but because circumstances 
made it necessary. " Moses found the custom in use. He 
found a hard-hearted and rebellious people. In this state of 
things he did not deem it prudent to forbid a practice so 
universal," but did the best he could for the people under 
the circumstances. Among some heathen nations to whom 
the gospel has been carried, who had never known anything 
but polygamy and slavery, something has been allowed to 
those who had several wives and held slaves when converted 
to Christianity ; and if our Slave-holders are in this con- 
dition something may be allowed to them. The Saviour's 
exposition of the law is not very creditable to the intelli- 
gence and virtue of any who practice or appeal to the law to 
justify their conduct and sentiments. " Because of the hard- 
ness of your hearts^ Moses suffered you ;" because of wicked- 
ness,, your love of wrong^ your insensibility to what was 
right / because oijowv perverse will to do what was wrong^ 
and hatred and resistance of what was right ; because of 
your enmity to God's holy law, written on the tables of 
stone, and delivered by God himself on Mount Sinai ; 
Moses allowed you to depart from that law, the spirit of it 
at least ; but I say unto you, the man who practices Moses' 
law of divorce is guilty of adultery, and by the same rule 
the man who ensla\ es another is guilty of robbery and the 
worst kind of robbery — for he robs a man ot his inalienable 



17 

rights, — ^^ Life, liberty, and the pnisnit of happiness ;" robs 
hini of the most precious of God's gifts to him, — his wife and 
children, — of his own manhood ! and, no wonder, when he 
has gone thus far that he can appeal to God to justify the 
sin. 

The questions for those to settle who plead the Mosaic law 
as a justification for modern Slavery, are : 

1st. Is the law still in force, or is it permitted to those to 
whom it was originally given ? If it is, the Jews have a right 
to enslave the heathen now, — any heathen, — white or black, 
all that do not embrace the Jewish religion, and ourselves 
among the rest. We are not Jews. Nor do we embrace 
their religion as these Pharisees held it. If itbe said it was 
given to the Church, and we have been engrafted into the 
Jewish Church, and are therefore entitled to its privileges, 
from which the Jews were cut off, then we may enslave the 
Irish, the German, the Indian, any who do not embrace the 
religion ; any who are too poor to pay their debts, or guilty 
of theft or other crimes, and hold them for fifty years ; then 
all who are members of the Church, and are slaves, are 
entitled to theit- liberty at the end of six years ; for if we 
adopt the system or claim it as ours, we must have a year 
of release every seventh year, and a jubilee every fiftieth 
year. In this case, the laws of all the Free States, on the 
subject of Slavery are wrong. May we select such parts 
of the system as suit us? The Mormon and Free-lover 
have selected theirs, and the Slave-holder has selected his, 
but is by no means as near the original law and practice as 
the Mormon. 

2d. Did God, authorizing the Jews four thousand years 
since to do certain things, authorize us to do the same or 
similar things? He authorized the Jews utterly to exter- 
minate the Canaanites and Amalekites. Does this authorize us 
to exterminate the Indians, the Mexicans, or any nation? 
If not, upon what grounds do M'e plead the practices, per- 
missions or laws given to another people under entirely dif- 
ferent circumstances ? 

The Saviour has answered both these questions in his 
2 



18 

reply to the Pharisees, who would perpetuate a system suited 
to their prejudices and their wickedness ; and his answer 
carries with it an exposition of the law, and a tremendous 
rebuke to all who take shelter under it for Slavery, polygamy 
and sli])pery divorces. His answer shows that the law was 
made, and was fit only for men who would not endure a 
better one — men shrouded in moral darkness and surround- 
ed with the wrongs which were tolerated; and he pronounced 
it 'inoperative, null and void to the Jews themselves; in the 
better state of things to which they had arrived. 

YI. The Mosaic code of Slavery was designed to amelior- 
ate the condition of the slave, elevate him to manhood, make 
him intelligent, and fit him for usefulness ; our system in all 
its laws and workings is calculated and designed to brutal- 
ize the slave, to work manhood out of him, to keep him 
ignorant, and to debase him and convert him from a man 
to a thing. 

1st. In the Hebrew system he was to be educated in their 
religion and admitted to all its privileges and advantages. 
" And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among 
you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in 
thy house or hought with money of any stranger which is 
not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house and he that 
is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised ; and 
my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting cove- 
nant." This was the seal of membership to the covenant 
made with Abraham, and secured them the privileges of 
that covenant. These slaves or servants were instructed in 
the Jewish religion, went with their masters to the Passover, 
and all the great religious festivals of the Jews, heaid the 
reading of the law, and had all the precepts of the law not 
only taught them, biit they were ccmjyelled to keep them the 
same as their children. Ex. xxiii., 14-17, and xxxiv., 23. "• The 
slaves were likewise guests in the family festivals." " And 
there shall ye eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall 
rejoice in all that ye put your hands unto, ye and your 
households^ wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, 



19 

and je shall rejoice before the Lord yonr God, ye and your 
sons, and your daughters, and your menservanls^ and your 
maidservants^ and the Levite that is within thy gates." — 
Deut. xii., 7, 12. The whole family was included in these 
religious festivals. The slaves shared' equally with the 
children in the religious instruction, in the festivity, in all 
the advantages of their whole religious system. In one of 
these great national convocations, Moses thus addressed 
them : " Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your 
God ; your captains of your tribes, your elders and your 
officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your 
wives, and the stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer 
of thy toood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou 
shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and 
unto his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee 
this day." Deut. xxix. 10 — 12. All congregated together, 
the master and his servant, all received the same instruc- 
tion, all entered together into covenant with God, all ate 
together, all rejoiced together, all had a mutual interest, and 
shared in each other's welfare. 

Nothing like this is found in our system, but the very 
reverse of it all. The laws of South Carolina forbid any as- 
semblage of slaves for the purpose of mental inslruciion, and 
the magistrates are required to disperse any assemblage of 
slaves, free negroes, mulattoes and mestizores, and authorizes 
inflicting corporeal punishment not exceeding twenty lashes. 
They are not permitted to meet even with white persons for 
the purpose of mental instruction. (Brevard Dig. 251:-5.) 
The laws of Virginia are the same, imposing twenty lashes 
to any such persons. In Georgia they impose ten days' 
imprisonment and thirty-nine lashes. In North Carolina, 
to teach a slave to read or write, or sell, or give him any 
book, (the Bible not excepted,) or pamphlet, is punished 
with thirty-nine lashes or imprisonment. (Law of 1831.) 
In Georgia, if a white teach a slave to write, he is fined 
five hundred dollars, and imprisoned at the discretion of the 
Court. A father may be flogged fur teaching his own child. 
(Law of 1829.) Kentucky and Maryland are the only 



20 

States in which education is not forbidden to the slaves. 
The spirit and design of it are shown in a speech of Mr. 
Berry, in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832. "We 
have," said Mr. Berry, '■' as far as possible^ closed every 
avenue hy which light tnight enter the minds of slaves. If 
we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our worh 
would ha completed ; they ivould then le on a level with the 
heasts of the field, and we should he safe ! I am not certain 
that we would not do it if loe could find out the process, and 
that on the plea of necessity. '''' 

Ministers have been imprisoned, females have been im- 
prisoned, and treated with aJl kinds of hardships and abuse 
for teaching slaves to read the Bible. These cases have be- 
come quite numerous of hite years, and barbarous enough 
we should think to satisfy even a slave driver's appetite for 
cruelty. 

2d. The Jewish law made the slave a man, regarded him 
a man, treated him as man ; cur laws make him a chattel, a 
mere beast of burthen, not a man but a thing. Bj the Jews 
he was treated with respect, worshipped with the femily, 
eat with the family, sat with the family, was entrusted with 
the interests of the family, sometimes married into the 
family, and the children of them became the heirs of the 
master. Abram did not treat Hager's son as Southern 
masters do their children by their slaves, sell them into 
bondage. Jacob's children, by Bilhali and Zilpah, his wives 
slaves, were made equal with his children by Leah and Ea- 
chael. Eliezer, Abram's servant, was entrusted with the 
oversight of all his property, sent with wealth and authority 
to select a wife for his son, was received into the family of 
Bethuel, and treated as the plenipotentiary of a great prince. 
"Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into 
the 2)arlor, and made them sit in the chiefest place, among 
them that were bidden, which were about thirty pers>on8," 
1. Sara.ix. 22. One of our slaves would have found a place 
in the kitchen. Ziba, Saul's servant, had twenty servants of 
his own, and large estates, 2. Sam. ix. 10. In 1. Chron. ii. 
34 — 35j we find this history of a slave : " Now Shcshan 



21 

had no sons but daughters. And Sheshan had a servant^ an 
Egyptian^ whose name was Jarha, and Sheshan gave his 
danghter to Jarha, his servant to wife, and she bare him 
Attai." What shameless amalgamationists those Hebrews 
were! Thej not only married with their slaves, but eleva- 
ted them to posts of honor. The grandson of this Attai was 
made a noble in David's army. 1. Chron. xi. 11. 

Our slave laws do not recognize slaves as men, but as 
chattels. The decisions of our Slave Judges are, that they 
have no rights as men, no religious, no civil rights. Judge 
Crenshaw decided that : " A slave is in absolute bondage. 
He has no civil rights.'''' Stewart's Ala. Rep. 320. '''■Slaves 
are deprimd of all civil rights.'''' Judge Mathews, in Mar- 
tin's Lou. Rep. 559. Chief Justice Taney has decided that 
*' the sLave has no rights which white men are bound to re- 
spect." He is not a citizen, and has no rights as a man. 
And the whole system of American Slavery is calculated 
and designed to degrade hiin from a man to a brute. If he 
is permitted to go into church, he must go into the negro's 
pew in some out of the way corner. If he comes to the 
Lord's table, he must sit by himself. In the family, he never 
eats with the family — never permitted to sit with the family 
— nor be educated with the family, and even in the Free 
States is excluded from the schools of the whites. The 
whole system of American Slavery is a studied effort to de- 
grade the slave, to work manhood and humanity out of him, 
to make him feel that he is an inferior being, and servitude 
the place for which God created him. We degrade him, 
debase him, brutalize hiin, and then excuse ourselves for 
enslaving him by the argument that he is an inferior race! 
What would they be who boastingly use this argument, if 
they were in the slaves' place a few hundred years? The 
argument itself shows that they are below many of them now 
in reasoning powers. He must be more than a man, who 
would not be inferior by such usage as the slave receives, 
and suiTounded with such circumstances as he is and has 
alwavs been. 



YII. The Jews made provision for giving freedom to 
their slaves ; all our provisions are to make Slavery perpet- 
ual ; the Jewish system abridged it, ameliorated and abol- 
ished it ; ours intensifies it in severity, perpetuates and ex- 
tends it. If a Jew was sold for debt, or for crime, he 
received his freedom in the year of release, or at the end of 
six years at the longest. Exod. xxi. 2. If he sold himself 
through extreme poverty, he could be held only till the year 
of Jubilee. Lev. xxv. 39 — 41. In this year was proclaimed 
throughout the land, universal freedom. This year — every 
fiftieth year, all were made Iree, and all lands reverted to 
their ancient owners. "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth 
year, and proclaim liherly ihrouqliout all the land, unto all 
the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you, and 
ye shall return every man unto his possession, and unto his 
family." Lev. xxv. 8—11. 

From the passage in Lev. xxv. 46, " They shall be your 
bondmen forever," it is argued, that slaves purchased Irom 
the heathen did not receive their liberty in the year of Ju- 
bilee. That this is not correct, is evident from these con- 
siderations : 

1st. That the word /c>rev«r, is frequently used in a limited 
sense, and is here. Lev. x. 15, "And it shall be thine, and 
thy sons with thee by a statute forever.''' But this statute 
has long since ceased. 1. Saml. i. 22, " Then will I bring 
him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide 
forever," in the temple at Shiloh, Avith Eli. But he abode 
there only during his litis ; Q.ndi forever^ here meant only as 
long as he lived. Josh. iv. 7, " And these stones shall be 
for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever ;" for a 
long time. In Exod. xxi. 6, it means till the year of Jubilee, 
as is plain by comparing it with Lev. xxv. 39 — 41. In 
' Exod. xxi. 6, it is ordained that the Jew was made a slave 
forever by a certain act of his ; and in Lev. xxv, 41 — 54, 
it is shown that this forever means only till the year of 
Jubilee. 

2d, The word forever is just as long with the heathen 
slave as with the Jewish, and no longer. If it meant to the 



23 

Jubilee in the one case, it did in the other ; for it is applied 
to both dasses of slaves. In Exod. xxv. 6, it is ordained 
of the Jew^ that '' he shall serve him, (his master,) fortver.^^ 
In Lev. xxv. 46, it is ordained of heathen slaves^ " they shall 
be your bondmen forevery Is forever in the one case any 
longer than the other ? If it be limited in the one, and not 
the other, it must be by some enactment or explanation 
which cannot be found. 

3d. Freedom in tlie Jubilee is proclaimed to all. '• And 
ye q\\qX\ 2)roGlaim libeiiy tliroughout all the land" — to whom? 
to all the Jewit;h slaves ? to all of a particular class wlio are 
enslaved ? No, but " to all the inhahitanU thereof^'' to all 
in bondage, to all whom it concerned ; '' the stranger that is 
in thy camp, the hewer of tljy wood, and drawer of thy 
water." 

4th. It is proved by its results — it broke up Slavery, as 
doubtless it was designed to do, and as such laws inevitably 
would. We find no evidence that Slavery existed among 
the Jews alter Nehemiah's day — and then it was only Jew- 
ish oppression ; Jews oppressing Jews, and not foreigners. 
They evidently had no foreign slaves at this time, and there 
is no mention in any of their writers or writings of Slavery, 
until the gospel came in contact with the heathen nations, in 
and after Christ's day ; and this accounts for Christ saying 
nothing about it. While it existed, the prophets severely 
rebuked it, denounced its wickedness, the displeasure of 
God against it, and as one of the causes of their being sold 
into Slavery. Ish. i. 17; Iviii, 6 — 7. Ezek. xxii. 29; xxxiv. 
17. 

We have considered JcM'ish Slavery from the brief laws 
and notices of it as recorded in the Bible in the beginning 
of that nation, emerging from a state of Slavery themselves, 
and entirely surrounded with it in an age of great moral 
darkness ; but to justify our Slavery by theirs, it should be 
when they had made their greatest attainments in religion 
and Christian knowledge. Though they never had the light 
and advantages we have, they had enough to abolish Sla- 
very. 



24: 

ago, in all their seini-barbarism, had religion, virtue and 
humanity enough in them to undermine and destroy thia 
more tlian barbarous practice of enslaving their fellov^ men. 
The careful study of the Bible on this institution, cannot fail 
to convince us how grossly it is misunderstood — and sweep 
away the iniiders cavil against its inspiration. If our Sla- 
very is Bible Slavery, the infidel has a valid argument for 
his infidelity, for if God is the author of such a system, he i& 
a monster whom all would fear, but none could love. ]S"one 
who will look at the difference will fail to see how little they 
resemble each other, and how absurd, disingenuous at least, 
to justify the one by the other. Hebrew Slavery existed in 
an age of great darkness, three thousand years ago ; ours in 
the full sunshine of gospel knowledge. Theirs was the best 
that could be done uuder the circumstances ; ours is the 
worst that can be under the circumstances. Theirs Avas for 
debts contracted by the man himself, for crimes committed; 
ours is for neither debt nor crime. Theirs was for a righte- 
ous claim or a just punishment ; ours is without the pretense 
of either. When purchased of the heathen, or taken pris- 
oners in war, they were educated in the Jewish religion, 
made members in the family; our slaves are stolen, kid- 
na])ped, and denied a religious education, or a family mem- 
bership. Man-stealing in the Jewish system, was punished 
with death ; ours is a system of man-stealing entirely. 
Theij-s was not a system of traffic in human beings ; ouis is. 
Theirs was mild and humane ; oui-s is cruel and oppressive 
in the extreme. Theirs was by express permission of God, 
or direction of God ; we have no such j)ermission or direc- 
tion. Theirs was designed to amelioi-ate the state of Slavery 
then prevalent in the world ; ours is no improvement on 
Slavery anywhere existing, but is worse than any system 
found in the civilized world. Theirs was designed and cal- 
culated to elevate the slave to manhood ; ours- is designed 
and calculated to work manhood out of the slave, and bru- 
talize him. They made him a man ; we make him a chattel. 
The Jewish system made provision for the slave's freedom; 
ours makes every possible provision against it. Theirs grew 



25 

milder, and disappeared from among them as they gained 
light; ours has increased and extended in the midst of light, 
and has grown worse instead of better. Theirs was a mild. 
Christian system; onrs is a cruel, heathen system. Theirs 
worked its own cure by a wise legislation; ours is working 
its cure by its monstrous wickedness, and is washing itself 
out in blood. Theirs ceased by doing right about it, giving 
the slave his freedom, as England and other Christian States 
have done; ours is ending as it did in Egypt, and other 
heathen nations in the Red Sea. 

I have nsed the words slave and slavery in running a par- 
allel between American Slavery and the old Jewish code of 
service, because the advocates of slavery claim the Jewish 
code as a system of slavery, and justify American Slavery 
by it ; but in truth, the Jewish system was not slavery in 
any sense as we now use the term. The term servant^ as 
used in the Old Testament writers, is not slave^ in the sense 
we use the word. It did not convey to the Jew the idea of 
chatleX^ thing^ Irute animal^ but a man or a woman bound to 
service for a time. The framers of our National Constitu- 
tion would not allow the terms slave and slaveinj in that in- 
strument, and thereby refused to recognize what the term 
slave is now meant to imply — ownership of men, and the 
destruction of the rights of man, the converting of a man to 
athing — a beast of burthen — a thing without rights, abso- 
lutely, unconditionally the property of another, a creature to 
be regarded in no other light than the amount of money 
he will bring in the market, or the amount of labor he can 
perform. This is the meaning of slave as now defined by 
Southern law, and maintained by their courts of law. in this 
sense the Jews never held slaves — they never had any such 
laws as these, and to charge it upon them is the grossest 
slander. 

The teachings, the laws, the institutions of the Old Testa- 
ment are all against Slavery — opposed to all oppression. 
This is the declaration of their learned men, Maimonides, 
and others. It is found in their proi)hets and sacred writings, 
coupled with threatenings and denunciations. Prov. xxii. 



26 

22—23. Ish. i. 17; v. 7—9 ; xxx. 12—13 ; Ixviii. 6. Jer. 
xxxiv. 17. Ezek. xxii. 29 — 31, and chapter xxxi v. Learned 
and able writers on Jewish law assure us, that there is in 
Hebrew no word for slave in the sense we use it, and the 
laws of Moses no where recognizes such a right in man as 
slaveholders claim. Able and learned Jewish writers show 
conclusively that the Mosaic law was much milder than it 
appears to us, designed for the general good of the poor and 
the oppressed, and worked out the problem it designed, of 
elevating and freeing them. 

A careful examination of the Mosaic laws will convince us: 

1st. That there was no slavery in the modern sense of the 
word among the Jews ; and 

2d. Therefore no slave insurrections, as in every nation 
where Slavery has prevailed; in Sicily, Rome, Crete, Sparta, 
Thessaly, Havti, and the United States. 

3d. That their laws of service prevented pauperism, va- 
grancy, idleness, &c. We find no mention of poor-houses, 
alms-houses, jails, prisons, beggars, and the like. Their 
remedy fur poverty was work, fur insolvency work and pay 
the debt, for theft, work. They carried out God's law, "six 
days shalt thou labor," and made all comply with it ; and 
this was much better, and accomplished more in preventing 
poverty, bankruptcy and crime, than all modern improve- 
ments for these evils. 

Since our attention has been called to the subject, we must 
not dismiss it without noticing the teachings of the New 
Testament. It is claimed that Christ said nothing against 
it, and therefore he approved it. It is certain Christ said 
nothing for it, and never manifested any interest for it, then 
how comes it, that those who profess to follow his example 
can say so much ibr it, and manifest so deep an interest in 
it? If Christ said nothing against it, it was because it was 
not necessary he should, for it did not exist, was not prac- 
ticed by those to whom his teachings M^ere given. His teach- 
ings were given to the church, and it did not exist in the 
church. The Jews, to whom his teachings were confined, 
were not guilty of it, how could ke condemn it in them ? 



27 

Christ's doctrines were not promulgated to the Roman gov- 
ernment, nor even to the centurion, whose servant he healed 
from whofti he turned away and directed his instructions to 
his disciples. Math. viii. 5 — 13. 

But if the Saviour did not condemn it where it did not 
exist, he gave his disciples, and through them, his church a 
code of law -which cuts it up by the roots — which at once 
destroys it wherever, and by whomsoever his law is em- 
braced. No law can be enacted against it more sweeping 
than this : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
" Therefore all things, whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and 
the prophets." Math. vii. 12. Every law on the Southeni 
statute book, every law and every practice of modern Sla- 
very is opposed to this. No man wishes his neighbor to 
enslave him, therefore by this law, he cannot enslave his 
neighbor. As any man is averse to any of the wrongs and 
evils of Slavery, and would not have them practiced on him- 
self or his children, so far as a Christian, must he condemn 
the system and all its details. 

If it be a valid argument, that it is right because the Sa- 
viour said nothing against it, then all other practices and 
laws are right against which he did not utter his protest. 
Now look into Roman history of that day, and see what a 
mass of wicked practices, and wicked laws we shall be com- 
pelled to justify. If we find it approved or condemned in 
the New Testament, it will be when the New Testament 
Church comes in contact with it ; and this was not till after 
Christ's death, for not till then was the gospel preached to 
the heathen who held slaves. And what is the Teaching of 
the Apostles f What they taught, and its effects on Sla- 
very, will prove this much : 

1st. That not a word of approval or of justification, for the 
system, nor a license to any Christian to hold a slave, is any 
where to be found. A man is not expressly forbidden to 
hold a slave, but he is required to do what entirely destroys 
the system. " Masters, give unto your servants that which 
is just and equal ; knowing that ye also have a master in 
heaven." Col. iv. 1. 



2» 

Is it " jnst or equal" to deprive a man of his wife, or child, 
or earnings ? What master would so regard it if practiced 
on himself? 

Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, whom none will accuse of "Ab- 
olitionism," says on this text, " Slaves are to be treated by 
their masters on the principles of equality. Not that they 
are to be equal with their masters in authority*, or station, 
or circumstances ; hut they are to he treated as having^ as 
men^ as husbands^ and as parents^ equal rights with their 
masters. It is just as great a sin to deprive a slave of the 
just recompense for his lahor., or keep him in ignorance., or 
take him from his wife or child, as it is to act thus to a free 
man. This is the equality which the law of God demands, 
and on this principle the final judgment is to be admin- 
istered." 

How much of a slave is that man who has equal rights 
with his master in everything but " his station and circum- 
stances?" Has a right to his wages, an education, to his 
wife and children? Have we any such Slavery as this? 
Was this Eoman Slavery? ]S"o one will object to such 
Slavery as this, but slave owners and those who are for de- 
priving men of these gospel rights. This is a good regula- 
tion for master and servant., but a death blow to master and 
slave. It effectually abolishes Slavery. Every commentary 
which I have seen, takes this view of the text, some directly 
and others inferentially. 

It is argued that those passages which enjoin obedience to 
masters, as Eph. vi, 5 — 8, and others, approve the condition 
of master and slave. We have men North of Mason and 
Dixon's line, who have committed these scriptures by heart, 
and repeat them as conclusive arguments that the apostles 
justified Slavery; but one circumstance militates against 
their honesty or their intelligence; they either do not know, 
or will not repeat what the apostle said to masters. I have 
heard Eph. vi. 5 — 8, quoted very accurately; but the stojiping 
place was at the 8th verse. The 9th verse either did not 
make for the system, or it was too hard to learn, or tliought 
not to have a connection. This disinwenuousness of its ad- 



29 

vocates is a very strong argument that these men do uot 
believe the apostles taught Slavery. Slave owners are 
willing you should preach what the Bible enjoins on the 
servant to their slaves, but he had better be out of Dixie if 
he ventures to preach what the scriptures enjoin on the 
master. What stronger argument can we have that the 
Bible does not justify Slavery ? 

That we may see how much the argument is worth, let 
us collate it with other passages. '' JJut I say unto you, 
love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to 
them that hate you, and pray fur them which despitefully 
use you, and persecute you." Math. v. 44. " Let every 
soul be subject unto the higher powers." Eom. xiii. 1. 

Do these commands approve or justify enmity, hate, 
persecution, cursing, and despiteful abuse? Does obe- 
dience to a bad government justify bad government? 
The apostles commanded obedience to the Eoman govern- 
ment, a government tolerating persecution for Christianity, 
feeding Christians to wild beasts, burning, torturing them, a 
government that gave the father power to kill his children, 
the husband his wife, and enjoined the death of hundreds or 
thousands of slaves for the murder of the master; does his 
command to be obedient and serve such a government, ap- 
prove or sanction it? Just as much as his commands to be 
obedient to a master who violates the laws of God and na- 
ture, sanctions such a master, or such a system. 

2d. That slavery is not a good condition to be in, and 
therefore it is not good to hold a man in it. " If thou mayest 
be made free, use it rather." 1. Cor. vii. 21. If you cannot 
be free it is not your fault, but the fault of another — if yon 
can be, it is your duty to be free. If it is the slave's duty 
to be free, it is every man's duty not to enslave him Sla- 
very is not as good a state as freedom ; then every man is 
guilty of a wrong who forces such a state. The apostle 
plainly declares that Slavery is uot as good a state for men 
as freedom, then how can he justify any for forcing this 
worse state on men? It is no where justified by Christ or 
his apostles. 



30 

3d. The effect of Bible teaching, of Christianity, is to de- 
stroy Slavery ; how then could it be that Christ and his 
apostles taught it to be right? The converted heathen gave 
freedom to their slaves. Owners of slaves when converted, 
manumitted their slaves in hundreds, and it is said thous- 
ands, as inconsistent with the principles of their new reli- 
gion. In the days of Constantine by an order of the Em- 
peror it was done in the church and before the whole congre- 
gation. The real Bible portion of the world objected strongly 
against American Slavery, when introduced by enslaving 
the Indians. Las Casas " Et^ected with indignation the 
idea, that any race of men was born to servitude, as in-e- 
ligious, and inhuman." Bob. Am. 1, book III, It was the 
Bible in England which brought it to an end in the West 
Indies. It was Bible teaching in New England and Atlan- 
tic States, which banished it from every State where it 
existed, North of Mason and Dixon's line. The result of 
Bible teaching, if practiced, would be just what it was in 
the case of Onesimus, and what Paul exhorted Philemon to, 
the servant set free, and received as a brother beloved. 
Here is a sample of New Testament teaching, and practice. 
Paul tells Philemon he might enjoin him as a Christian^ yet 
for love's sake, he beseeches him as a Christian brother, to 
receive his servant — but not as a servant or slave, but a 
brother, beloved. Taking Paul's Epistle to Philemon as 
their guide, how many Christians would hold slaves? Nay 
— how many could? Paul says he might coinma7id as an 
inspired apostle, what he asks Philemon to do — not to hold 
Onesimus as a slave, but regard him above a slave — a broth- 
er an equal by the law of Christianity. If this is the law 

of Christianity, who then pleads Christianity to justify 
American Slavery ? Phil, verses 8, 10—16. A Missionary 
in the West Indies before the abolition of Slavery there, 
was charged with reading an inflammatory chapter from 
the Bible to his congregation. It might have been true, for 
the Bible has many such chapters, and as offensive to our 
slaveholders as to the West Indians. 

Great numbers in every age, since Christ's advent can 



31 

say, with Cochin, " / owe. to Christianity the horror with 
which Slavery inspires mey 

4th. The apostles place our Shivery among the worst 
crimes. 1. Tim. i. 9 — 10, in enumerating things against 
which the law is ordained he specifies, the " profane, mur- 
derers of fathers and mothers, man-slayers, whore- 
mongers, men-stealers^ liars, and perjured persons." Our 
Slavery is founded in man-stealing, and it will be found to 
embrace all this catalogue of crime, profanity, murdering 
fathers and mothers, man-slaying, whoredom, lying and 
perjury. John Wesley expressed very briefly what Paul 
particularizes, " Slavery is the sum of all villanies." There 
is not a crime forbidden in the Bible, which American Sla- 
very does not tolerate and practice. 

There are hard problems in ethics and some men's system 
of theology, the solving of which Avould confer a favor on the 
miskilled and dull of apprehension, I have not been able 
to solve these, and will acknowledge my obligations to 
any one who will. 

1st. How it is that the Bible teaches Slavery, and yet 
slave owners will not allow it to be taught to their slaves. 
Slaveholders, and the advocates of Slavery are very sure 
the Bible teaches Slavery, and yet Slavery makes it a crime 
to teach a slave to read the Bible. Are they afraid their 
slaves will find out it is a sin to be free ? Or that God made 
them for slaves, and doomed them to this state? 

2d. How it is that Slavery is good, and yet productive of 
untold evils; good, and yet always ends in mischief. In 
nearly every State or kingdom where it has not been abol- 
ished by law, it has ended in civil wars, insurrections, mobs, 
&c., as in Greece, Rome, Hayti, and the United States. Wbat 
a Southern father told his children would be the result of 
Slavery in this country, " That the sun of Slavery would 
set in blood," was predicted from the history of Slavery and 
oppression in other countries. This has been its history. 
We need not go abroad to know what demoralization, vio- 
lation of the decencies and amenities of life, brutalities and 
cruelties it breeds. We have all these and every sin lorbid- 



32 

den in the decalogue, as the result of it in our land. God 
approves b la very, His word teaches it, and His providence 
is always against it, from the day He drowned the Egyptians 
in the Red Sea till to-day, when He is drowning American 
Slavery " in destruction and perdition." How is this ac- 
counted for ? 

3d. How is it, that God has implanted in the human soul 
a desire for freedom, a foci which every one knows in his 
own experience, and yet created men to be slaves ? Does 
God make such contradictions, or is the desire of freedom a 
part of Adam's sin? 

4th. How is it that the Bible teaches Slavery, and yet 
wherever the Bible goes, Slavery is abolished. It univer- 
sally prevailed in the heathen world at the coming of Christ, 
but did not prevail among the Jews, and it disappeared 
from the heathen world wherever the Bible was introduced, 
and believed as the word of God. 

6th. Slavery is a Divine institution — a Bible institution 
ordained and taught by prophets and apostles, then how is 
it, that nearly all good men in every age, have been opposed 
to it ? and such a majority of bad men are in favor of it? 
To-day, ninety-nine out of one hundred of all Evangel- 
ical Ministers throughout Christendom, are opposed to it, 
at least those who have not an interest in it, or are not in 
some way involved in it. The scandal of being aholitionists 
has belonged to Cln-istians in all ages, and the glory of ap- 
proving and justifying Slavery, to but very few. Thousands 
in this country are heartily opposed to the system, w^ho 
have hitherto been opposed to meddling with it in the States, 
until those States have sought to enforce it on the country, and 
to found a slave empire, have waged war on the Government. 
This has been my position until this war. Though called an ab- 
olitionist, 1 have not till lately been entitled to the credit, 
or scandal, as you please to regard it. lam now thoroughly 
converted, and have no scruples in placing it where Paul 
has, among the worst of crimes, and am so far a Wesleyan 
as to believe with the author of Wesleyanism, that " it is the 
sum of all villainies." ''A Divine Institution!" a divine 



33 

institution for man-stealing — for robbing a man of his rights, 
for adultery per force, and by the right of the master — for 
traffic in the souls and bodies of men! All this, and a 
thousand other things of like character, and some ^vorse, by 
the grace of God, to be sure! By the grace of God to 
whom ? Why, to the slave himself we are told ! To the 
man who is knocked down, manacled, and sold to men who 
work them as they do oxen, deny them the Bible, keep them 
in ignorance, whip and torture them to their heart's content! 
To woman, Avhom the good and gracious system, subjects to 
the lusts of the master, and to see their own offspring sold 
at the master's pleasure for a cotton plantation! What a 
God the God of Slavery must be ! and the men who con- 
ceived such a being! The day is coming when the world 
will be at a loss to understand what could have been the 
condition of society when such sentiments were tolerated or 
believed. 

In conclusion, I have no apology to offer for this sermon, 
the text was laid upon the desk, and I was requested to 
preach from it ; and, I judged, not by an abolitionist or an 
anti-slavery man, for they are not apt to fasten their atten- 
tion on such texts, or feel any special favor for them. I have 
not preached it therefore, to gratify anti-slavery men, nor 
with any design or desire to wound the feelings of those who 
differ with me. This I would gladly avoid. It is always 
more or less painful to preach what I know friends dislike 
to hear. I love my friends, and pray God to give me grace 
to love my enemies. For several years jDast, the question of 
duty and friendship have had a constant struggle in my 
mind. I have hesitated, pondered and prayed, to know 
what I should do. Friends on the one hand, and the ques- 
tion of duty on the other — friends who had been such for 
twenty long years, and the claims as I believed of my coun- 
try, of patriotism, of religion, of my vows as a minister, to 
be faithful to the truth and my fears of the judgment on the 
other, have given me some wakeful hours, and no small 
agitation and anxiety. I would not be understood that this 
was entirely on my own account — the welfare, the unity. 



34 

and prosperity of the church over which God lias placed me, 
Iiad something to do in the matter. The church is worth 
many such things as myself. Every member is as precious 
in the eye of God as myself, and I would not offend one of 
Christ's little ones. I fear the millstone. I have read the 
maledictions of politicians on the floor of Congress against 
ministers, and heard them in the streets by the drunken tools 
of politicians, for meddling with politics, wlien praying for 
our country, for the Government, was the sin, when the mere 
mention of Slavery was politics, and this by men who brand- 
ed every man aa an abolitionist who was not heart and hand 
for Slavery. These were not my trouble, but friends in the 
fold of Christ — who, perhaps, were his in the covenant of 
redemption, but were misled, were in the dark on the sub- 
ject, and who suffered the blindness, perhaps in the provi- 
dence of God to rebuke my own unfaithfulness, and be a 
thorn in the flesh to keep me sensitive to duty, and cure 
pride. The effect has been a careful examination as to duty 
on the subject now discussed, and to the church and govern- 
ment. I have not been able to prove to my satisfaction, 
that a Christian Minister may not be, or ouglit not to be a 
patriot, love his country, pray for the Government ; or that 
his patriotism should be less at a time above all others 
when patriotism is demanded, or his prayers or efforts be 
less when his country is in danger, and great efforts made to 
overthrow the Government. I am convinced that a Chris- 
tian must he a patriot^ and none the less for being a min- 
ister ; that in time of need, as I conceive the present to be, 
he ought to be willing to make any sacrifice of time, labor, 
friends, money, and life, if need be. A good Government is 
God's gift, and the best gift to men for this world, and ours 
is unquestionably the best the world has, or perhaps ever 
has had, being founded on the principle of universal free- 
dom to all, and in which ail help to govern ; the very kind 
of government indeed, which God himself gave to his own 
chosen people ; separate tribes, but one general govern- 
ment ; the tribes distinct, and yet one ; a written Constitu- 
tion for each State, and a ITational one ; laws enacted by 



35 

the people, rulers and judges chosen bj the people, and 
from among the people, and full provision made for amend- 
ing and correcting any bad law, and the removal of every 
bad magistrate, and redressing every wrong What more 
can any people ask? What better can God do for them in 
the bestowment of a government? Being fully pursuaded 
of these facts, I have preached some four patriotic ser- 
mons since the war began, in my feeble way trying to 
convince my people of these truths, and our duties in con- 
nection with them. Holding these sentiments, I cannot but 
regard every man in error who lightly esteems the rich 
boon which God has conferred on us in the Government he 
has given us ; and every man who, from party motives, or 
any other, takes part against the Government or those labor- 
ing to sustain it against this rebellion, as the enemies of the 
country, my enemies and yours ; and every system, and 
everything whicli endangers the peace and perpetuity of 
this Government as mischievous, wrong, wicked. Such I 
regard Slavery. It is at the bottom of, and the author — 
the sole cause of this war. As a patriot then, I ought to hate 
Slavery ; it has sought, and is now struggling to destroy 
my country ; as a friend to good Government, I ought to 
hate it ; it has undermined and fired the train, to blow to 
fragments, the best Government in the world. As the friend 
of universal, civil, and religious liberty, I ought to hate it; 
it is the monster tyrant that seeks the destruction of human 
liberty, and to extend its empire of darkness and oppression 
over the world. As the friend of education, of light and 
intelligence, 1 ought to hate it ; it has opposed and obstructed 
all these as far as it could. As a Christian, I ought to hate 
it, and all kinds of oppression; all the prophets, and good 
men of every age, have been its enemies. As a minister 
of the gospel of peace, I ought to be its enemy ; it has com- 
menced, and is now waging a bloody, cruel, causeless and bar- 
barous war, of which savages ought to be ashamed. As a phi- 
lanthropist, I ought to abominate it ; what wrong has it not 
inflicted on men? What thousands, yea what millions, 
has it robbed and murdered, and cast to the sharks of the 



36 

ocean:' No, there is not a Christian emotion in the soul of 
man, not a kind or a right emotion, which is not opposed to 
American Slavery. We rejoice in the belief that its day of 
doom has come, that the hand is seen writing on the wall, 
that the river is turned, and the army of deliverance is 
entering "the two-leaved gates," and soon God's captives 
shall be set free, and the American Belshazzar and his 
impious Lords be slain, and Babylon be utterly destroyed. 
A " voice from heaven," the providence of God, the signs 
of the times, say to God's people, " Come out of her, my 
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye 
receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached 
unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
Reward her according to her works ; in the cup which she 
hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hatli glori- 
fied herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and 
Borrow give her ; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, 
and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore 
shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, 
and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for 
strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." 



HS3 75 550 




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